The incomparable transversality of football causes unexpected political coincidences. Giorgia Meloni She is the current Prime Minister of Italy, president of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero He was president of the Government of Spain and has resurfaced in recent months, led by Pedro Sánchez, as a reference for the essence of the classic PSOE, reports THE NEWSPAPER OF SPAIN. Is it possible that two such opposite politicians have something in common in their legislative practice? Football is the answer. Beckham’s Law is the answer.
Both saw how football clubs were up in arms for excluding athletes from the special contribution regime for highly qualified foreigners arriving in their respective countries. A regulation that Spain established in 2005, under the Government of Zapatero himself, and that took the popular name of the English footballeras he was one of the first to benefit from the rule when he signed for Real Madrid.
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This rule was modified in 2009, precisely to leave footballers out of it, again with the former socialist president in charge of the Spanish Executive, and in a context of already rampant economic crisis. Then there were timid attempts to call this modification Ley Ronaldo, given that Madrid had signed the Portuguese forward just a few months earlier. He didn’t stick.
Now, Meloni has decided to make the same decision, causing an earthquake in Serie A, since the decision has been more unexpected and abrupt in its gestation. In 2019, Giuseppe Conte, prime minister of the populist 5 Star Movement, established a tax reduction that made it cheaper for Italian companies to hire foreign professionals with high salaries, leaving their taxation at half the usual amount, through the so-called Crescita Decree. Just a few days ago, Meloni, imitating Zapaterohas decided to exclude athletes from this tax advantage.
Criticism of the decision
“It will be the destruction of Italian football”Giorgio Furlani, CEO of AC Milan, has predicted, in the same line as other leaders, such as the president of Lazio and deputy of Forza Italia (far-right) Claudio Lotito: “They will realize the mistake. It will be better to attract a foreigner that he pays less taxes if he cannot attract him and that he does not pay anything to the State, right?”
Serie A now regrets that Meloni’s government follows the path marked by Zapatero, through the decision not to extend the ‘Crescita Decree’. For the Italian employers’ association, this decision “will cause less competitiveness of the teams, with a consequent reduction in income and fewer resources for the quarries, fewer related activities and, therefore, also less income for the treasury“.
Both cases find obvious football parallels. In 2005, Spanish football was going through a three-year streak without placing one of its teams in the Champions League final and Both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona were going through difficult times, far from the European front line. The government’s cape with the Beckham Law allowed both to increase their competitiveness in the following years, with effects that lasted over time, since the exclusion of footballers in 2009 did not prevent those who had arrived in Spain before that date from losing that tax privilege. . Like Cristiano Ronaldo, to give the most relevant example.
Revitalization of ‘calcium’
Something similar happened with ‘calcium’, which was in a deep crisis five years ago. In 2019, Juventus won nine leagues in a row and the other two major leagues in the country, Inter and Milan had been out of the spotlight for a decade, financially ruined and without sporting strength.. Already in 2018, a ‘flat rate’ measure had been applied for footballers, who declared a maximum of 100,000 euros per year for the performance of their image rights outside Italy. This was one of the main reasons, in fact, that allowed Cristiano Ronaldo to sign for Juventus in the summer of 2018, from Real Madrid.
Coincident or not, the establishment of these measures has allowed in recent years a resurgence of Inter and Milan. Each of them has won a Scudetto and last year they played in one of the Champions League semi-finals, with the Nerazzurri’s victory. With Juventus and Roma in the Europa League and Fiorentina in the Conference, Italian football added five semi-finalists in European competitions in the same season, an unprecedented record.
In recent years, the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, had denounced the tax advantage of championships like the Italian one. Or, better written, the disadvantage that the Spanish teams had when having to compete against this type of teams (the English and French also have ‘ad hoc’ government regulations) without incentives in Spain to attract talent through tax legislation.
The “immorality” of the norm, defended by a sector of the Meloni government, in a context of economic difficulties for the general population, has ended up being the trigger for its eradication. By enjoying immediate action, the Italian clubs face the winter market under the new regulations, throwing overboard any preparation work carried out: The footballer who previously cost five million in terms of salary now costs 10. Goodbye to the Italian Beckham Law.
2024-01-04 06:58:59
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